Meghan Markle’s half-sister Samantha files new defamation lawsuit following judge’s dismissal

Meghan Markle's half-sister, Samantha Markle, has relaunched her legal battle against the duchess over "defamatory" comments made in the 2021 interview with Oprah and the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan. Photos / YouTube, CBS

The duchess is set to battle it out in court with her half-sister once again.

Meghan Markle’s half-sister has revived her legal battle against the Duchess of Sussex, appealing a US court’s decision to dismiss her defamation case in March.

Samantha Markle, 59, tried to sue Meghan over comments she made in the Sussexes’ bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, as well as in the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, released at the end of 2022.

But in March, two years after the first lawsuit was filed, Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell ruled that Samantha “was unable to provide evidence to prove defamation” and dismissed it in court, according to The Sun.

Samantha regards the remarks as being defamatory to her character and reputation, claiming in court that Meghan’s comments portrayed her as a “lying, racist, fame-seeker” and had left her unable to work or enjoy day-to-day activities, reported the paper.

In new court documents obtained exclusively by The Sun, Samantha filed a lawsuit in a Florida court on August 2, two days before Meghan’s 43rd birthday, where she claimed the defamation was linked to Meghan suggesting she had no siblings and that Samantha was not family to her.

“Meghan knew what she was doing, and how to do it,” Samantha’s legal team claimed in the documents. “She destroyed Samantha publicly and on a global scale.”

The lawsuit claimed that Meghan’s comments “made it so Samantha cannot work, or even enjoy the most mundane of activities, like going to the grocery store without harassment”.

Meghan has yet to comment on the latest lawsuit from her half-sister.

The first set of comments Samantha refers to were made in the 2021 interview, Oprah with Meghan and Harry, where Meghan spoke of being estranged from her father and half-sister.

“I think it’d be very hard to tell all when you don’t know me. And I mean, this is a very different situation than my dad, right?” Meghan told Winfrey at the time.

Harry and Meghan sit down with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 for a bombshell interview that sent ripples through the royal family.

They were discussing the memoir Samantha wrote about her half-sister called The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister Part 1, released earlier that year.

“When you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone that you have a relationship with. Right? I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know.”

“But I grew up as an only child,” Meghan added, “which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wish I had siblings. I would have loved to have had siblings, so I’m so excited to be pregnant so that Archie has someone.”

“But the last time I saw her must have been 18 or 19 years ago.”

Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan after the interview in 2021, Samantha said those claims were inaccurate – and there is a photo of them together in 2008 at Samantha’s graduation.

“Anyone who has a calculator or a functioning frontal lobe knows that was not 19 years ago. At her age, I would think she could do math, but I think the case is deceit more than inaccuracy.”

Samantha also cited discussions that were had in Harry & Meghan as defamatory when she refiled the lawsuit in 2023. One episode of the docuseries alleged Samantha was deliberately spreading disinformation which had led to a wave of hate being launched against the former actress-turned-duchess, reported Fox News.

Samantha claimed in her original lawsuit that the comments made in the interview and the Netflix docuseries were “demonstrably false and malicious lies.”

Samantha Markle, pictured with her half-sister Meghan Markle at her graduation in 2008, has released a tell-all book. Photo / Twitter

Meghan’s half-sister then accused her of wrongly telling people that she was “an only child” and claimed the Duchess of Sussex wasn’t honest about the timeframe between when they last saw each other. She also says Meghan spread negative stories about Thomas Markle to convince the world of a false “rags-to-royalty” story of her life.

However, Judge Honeywell ruled that the evidence presented was not enough to warrant proceeding with a defamation case in court.

The judge found Meghan’s comments about her relationship with her half-sister, as well as her father Thomas Markle, to be “quintessential examples of opinion” and ruled that Samantha’s claim that Meghan wanted to paint her as a liar and a “fame-seeker” was an “improper mischaracterisation” of her words, according to court documents available online.

Furthermore, Judge Honeywell referred to a statement given by Meghan, which alleged that Samantha changed her last name back to Markle from her married name once the former actress started dating Prince Harry.

The judge agreed with Meghan on the substance of her claims, writing: “That Plaintiff used one last name and then the name Markle soon after reports of defendant’s relationship with Prince Harry were published is substantially true, based on the exhibits in the record, of which the Court has taken judicial notice.”

Meghan slammed the original lawsuit as “meritless”.

“We do not empanel juries to rule on whether two people are ‘close’, or whether one genuinely feels that they ‘grew up as an only child’,” the Duchess of Sussex’s legal team stated at the time.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recently sat down for an interview with CBS, detailing their new initiative The Parents Network which aims to tackle and address the risks of online harm for children. Photo / CBS, X

“Courts are not equipped to adjudicate the legitimacy of a person’s feelings about their childhood and relationships. Nor should they be.”

Meghan’s lawyer proceeded to tell TMZ after the original request for dismissal that the lawsuit was “baseless and absurd” and “a continuation of a pattern of disturbing behaviour”.

“We will give it the minimum attention necessary, which is all it deserves,” he concluded.